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Free source of heat?  

post #1 of 28
9/15/08 at 11:43pm
Thread Starter 
If you have a free source of heat, where is it from?
post #2 of 28
9/16/08 at 9:33am
Free heat?

Not sure I understand. If we had a woodstove, I might be able to scavenge wood, though not enough to heat my whole house.

I have read great things about geothermal, but installation is very spendy.

The sun does a pretty good job on coolish days.

A nice sweater?

Are you unable to afford heat this winter? I know our town is circulating promotions for reduced cost heating fuel to those who qualify. And the local churches are gearing up for increased needs among their attenders.
post #3 of 28
9/16/08 at 9:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by AnalogWife View Post
If you have a free source of heat, where is it from?
Our downstairs neighbors. They are : while we are

We actually had to open our windows last New Years Eve when we had guests over.
post #4 of 28
9/16/08 at 9:55am
The hat I wear to bed.
post #5 of 28
9/16/08 at 10:14am
I have a wood stove and we get the wood off of our own land so it is free.
post #6 of 28
9/16/08 at 10:42am
My computer puts out a lot of heat! It's not free, but I have it on all the time anyway...
post #7 of 28
9/16/08 at 11:35am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by AngieB View Post
I have a wood stove and we get the wood off of our own land so it is free.

That's kind of what I was looking for. The hat to bed makes sense too : but more for the entire house. Like, we collect pallets that our friend's workplace discards and we burn them. My brother's employer creates a lot of sawdust and they have a pellet maker, and they make pellets and give them to employees, just to be nice, I guess. I was just being curious and nosey.
post #8 of 28
9/16/08 at 12:00pm
I believe a friend of mine had quite a bit of wood delivered for free from one of the companies that does tree service.
post #9 of 28
9/16/08 at 12:02pm
My parents had a wood burning furnace. They live in an area that has tonnes of trees & forest so there was a never-ending supply of wood. When their neighbor's house burned down due to errors on the chimney builders my parents stopped using the wood furnace.
post #10 of 28
9/16/08 at 12:05pm
My snuggly cosleeping kids aND A HEAVY FUZZBALL OF A DOG ON MY FEET! oops--sorry for caps.
post #11 of 28
9/16/08 at 12:08pm
I have friends who own a large piece of land where a company is obtaining natural gas from their property. (I don't know the logistics of how they get the gas out, its a big piece of property so I've never seen the actual site). Anyway, in addition for being paid for the right to harvest the fuel, the company provides them with free heat.
post #12 of 28
9/16/08 at 12:09pm
We have cut wood on our property for the woodstove, although we can't heat the entire house with the woodstove.

A pp mentioned free wood pellets from her dh's work....nice perk/
post #13 of 28
9/16/08 at 12:16pm
It's not "free" but...

one of our bedrooms is much, much warmer than the others in the winter. We all sleep in the same room, so after we figured that out, we started using that as our sleeping room in the winter. We were able to turn the heat way down and saved a ton on our heating bill.
post #14 of 28
9/16/08 at 12:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by fek&fuzz View Post
The hat I wear to bed.
yeah to that! socks and a hat. i got lazy this year but i tried this for a few really cold days.. we were all dressed. lol. my kids don't like to wear clothes much (one kid has sensory issues and so that's understandable - the other just copies her sister). well i clothed them in warm and very comfortable (according to my sensory kid) polar fleece clothing, socks and all and turned the heater off and we were all very warm and just fine without the heater. i'll be doing this next winter. the clothes are already there so essentially its free. a lot of money saved this way.

now, if only i could find a way to stay cool in summer without using the a/c.. unfortunately when i get too hot i get a migraine so i can't do without the cool air. so i'll make up for the cost/environmental effects that the a/c creates by keeping the heater off in winter.
post #15 of 28
9/16/08 at 1:08pm
Our neighbors scrounge pallets to burn in their outdoor wood furnace. But with the price of gasoline, I don't know if they're saving much money because they have to pick up the pallets and haul them home. They also burn a few things that they shouldn't in their furnace : I wouldn't recommend burning random things, though, it can create air quality issues.
post #16 of 28
9/16/08 at 1:13pm
My grandparents have a natural gas well on their property. They are still connected to gas company's line just in case, but they have never used it in the 50+ years they lived ther.
post #17 of 28
9/16/08 at 1:41pm
Body heat.

But 9.5 months later, there's a price to pay
post #18 of 28
9/16/08 at 3:07pm
It's not free as you would need to build it but after it's built it would be free.

Solar window heater.
http://www.jrwhipple.com/sr/solheater.html
post #19 of 28
9/16/08 at 3:36pm
I had completely forgot about my FIL's free heat. He also has a natural gas line on his property, and gets his own share for free. He still has his wood burning stove for just in case, but hasn't had to use it in a couple of years.
post #20 of 28
9/16/08 at 3:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gurumama View Post
Body heat.

But 9.5 months later, there's a price to pay
Dh and I affectionately refer to ds as 'high price of heating oil"...it was a very cold winter in Massachusetts...and now we have handsome boy.
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